Researchers from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Provide Details of New Studies and Findings in the Area of Mental Health Diseases and Conditions (Trends In Cigarette Use and Health Insurance Coverage Among Us Adults With Mental …): Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2022 DEC 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Mental Health Diseases and Conditions. According to news reporting originating from Washington, District of Columbia, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To estimate recent trends in cigarette use and health insurance coverage for United States adults with and without mental health and substance use disorders (MH/SUD). Event study analysis of smoking and insurance coverage trends among US adults with and without MH/SUD using 2008-19 public use data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual, cross-sectional survey. USA.”

Financial support for this research came from NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “A nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized respondents aged 18-64 years (n = 448 762). Outcome variables were three measures of recent cigarette use and one measure of past-year health insurance coverage. We compared outcomes between people with and without MH/SUD (MH disorder: past-year mental illness, predicted from Kessler-6 and the World Health Organization-Disability Assessment Schedule impairment scale; SUD: met survey-based DSM-IV criteria for past-year alcohol, cannabis, cocaine or heroin use disorder) and over time. Comparing pooled data from 2008 to 2009 and from 2018 to 2019, current smoking rates of adults with MH/SUD decreased from 37.9 to 27.9% while current smoking rates of adults without MH/SUD decreased from 21.4 to 16.3%, a significant difference in decrease of 4.9 percentage points (pts) [95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.3-6.6 pts]. Daily smoking followed similar patterns (difference in decrease of 3.9 pts (95% CI = 2.3-5.4 pts). Recent smoking abstinence rates for adults with MH/SUD increased from 7.4 to 10.9%, while recent smoking abstinence rates for adults without MH/SUD increased from 9.6 to 12.0%, a difference in increase of 1.0 pts (95% CI = -3.0 to 0.9 pts). In 2018-19, 11% of net reductions in current smoking, 12% of net reductions in daily smoking and 12% of net increases in recent smoking abstinence coincided with greater gains in insurance coverage for adults with MH/SUD compared to those without MH/SUD.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Improvements in smoking and abstinence outcomes for US adults with mental health and substance use disorders appear to be associated with increases in health insurance coverage.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Trends In Cigarette Use and Health Insurance Coverage Among Us Adults With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders. Addiction, 2022. Addiction can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Addiction - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1360-0443)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Timothy B. Creedon, USA. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation, Washington, DC 20201, United States. Additional authors for this research include Ana M. Progovac, Benjamin Le Cook and Douglas E. Levy.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16052. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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